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Tuesday 24 July 2018

Moving antisemitism vote would leave Labour Jewish MPs facing prospect of Rosh Hashanah meeting

'Jeremy Corbyn's request to move a crucial vote on antisemitism to after the summer break would leave Jewish MPs facing the prospect of being asked to attend a rescheduled meeting on Rosh Hashanah.

The Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) will meet on Monday night for the last time before parliament's summer recess and Labour MPs are due to debate a motion that would force the party's national executive committee (NEC) to vote on incorporating the full internationally accepted definition of antisemitism into their own official rulebooks.

If passed, the vote would put Labour MPs at odds with the party leadership, who pushed for the NEC to adopt different guidelines - without a vote - that omit key examples of how criticising Israel can be antisemitic.

But on Sunday Mr Corbyn said he would prefer the PLP debate to be "delayed until September" so more people could attend.

"I also think MPs should get full notice of that issue," he said. "Obviously the parliamentary party is quite free to debate it but, as with all functions of the Labour party, ultimately, standing orders must be approved by the national executive committee and that cannot happen until the autumn."

But it has now emerged that the only PLP meeting scheduled to take place September would be on September 10. Rosh Hashanah begins on the previous night.

MPs return from their six-week summer break on September 4, which is a Tuesday, and with the Labour Party conference taking place later in the month in Liverpool, September 10 is the only Monday that month the PLP could meet.'

Could Jeremy Corbyn be that insensitive? 

Might Labour Party tacticians think this a clever move? 

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